The Rise of The Peasant
(2-minute read)
The little peasant glared at the village headman. He had rebuffed her several times even after she brought cabbages to his hut.
Her little dog Bi-Xi-Qi looked at her with lazy eyes. “Why do you seek to please the headman so much?”
“Because I need his fertiliser for our paddy fields,” said the Little Peasant in despair. “I need to eke a living.”
“You foolish girl,” said Bi-Xi-Qi scratching his ear. “No one is significantly more superior than you to warrant pandering. No one is worth that power you give. And even if they are, like the Emperor or General, it is unwise to choose people so far above you to deal with, for the power imbalance will never fall in your favour. Often you will end up the sycophant while the other party feeds of it and grows in arrogance.”
“Strive to be better, so that the one above you becomes your equal. But do your growing before meeting your foe. Be smart in choosing challenges.”
“Further, the headman will never tell you how bountiful your paddy field is. But leave him be and watch,” concluded Bi-Xi-Qi as he ran to chase a butterfly.
“You are right my little dog,” exclaimed the peasant. “The headman is not a better farmer than me. I work the farm better than him and I give far better propaganda speeches than his stupid provincial mind could ever muster.”
“Overthrow him when the time is right,” said Bi-Xi-Qi observing a lizard on the wall. “Chuck his body in the paddy fields.”
The Little Peasant set off to work her farm with diligence, ignoring the conflated headman and his fertiliser. Come harvest, she was producing the most sacks of rice and prospering. Soon, the village folk began to seek the Little Peasant for counsel. As her paddy fields turned golden, so too, her influence in the village.
The ashen-faced village headman knocked on the door of the Little Peasant one day and offered the first pick of fertiliser. Here he was now grovelling, when she had risen in village hierarchy.
The little peasant smiled graciously and said, “While I am no better than most people, so too is no one better than me.”
